This invention relates to a system and method for measuring and analyzing acceleration data from a golf club and for applying said data to golf swing analysis.
The use of electronics in the shaft or club head of a golf club to measure golf swing characteristics has been the subject of considerable past work. Modern implementations offer a large number of sensors and computational power all concealed within the shaft. Over time, the tendency has been to make ever more sophisticated measurements in an effort to obtain increasingly detailed understanding of the golf swing.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,648,769, 6,638,175, 6,402,634 and 6,224,493 describe instrumented golf clubs that use accelerometers and strain gages mounted in the club head and an angular rate sensor to measure the angular speed of the grip area of the club.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,658,371, 6,611,792, 6,490,542, 6,385,559 and 6,192,323 describe methods for matching golfers with a driver and ball by measuring a golfer's club head speed and comparing that measured data with recorded sets of data that correlate a few key variables that can aid in matching golfers with the most suitable club and ball.
However, as will be seen below, further advances in the state of the art are desirable and believed to be achieved by the present invention.